Help a Charity at this New Auction Site

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Bidazzled. All opinions are 100% mine.

If you live in the US, here’s a chance to get some bargains while you support a cancer charity. Bidazzled has been set up to support The Ruch Foundation, a support site for people with lung cancer and their families and friends. They say they pass on 70% of their profits.

Most of us have been touched by cancer in some way. I had a father-in-law who died from lung cancer, so this sort of thing is quite dear to my heart.

Bidazzled.com is an auction site with a difference. First you purchase a pack of bids, priced from $25. Then you can apply your bids to items offered, which can be name brand merchandise. Bidding starts at under $1 and the price goes up slightly with each bid and everyone else is given a few more seconds to bid. When there are no more bids, the auction closes. Looks like it’s good fun.

Winners get their items shipped for free, and typically save about 80% of retail prices; or they can often choose to keep the item in circulation for the charity by selling it back to Bidazzled for cash or more bids Everyone who doesn’t win gets 50 bonus bids just for taking part, so there are no losers.

There are other benefits too. There’s a complicated referral programme where you earn a number of bids depending where you are in the referral hierarchy. Everyone who registers gets 5 free bids, and 2 people have already each won a Nintendo Wii. But until January 15th, you’ll get a total of 15 free bids by entering this code on the registration page.

There’s no obligation to buy more bids, so you might as well. And then see what fun you can have while you are supporting The Ruch Foundation.

Summer Winds

The weather is so cold and frosty, snowy for some, in the UK. I’m hoping my daughter will not have any problems driving down from London tomorrow, when she brings my granddaughter for their Christmas visit.

In the meantime, I thought I’d look for something different about the weather, and something uplifting to look forward to. I found these two verses in my haiku diary from last year, and the photo is of Tintinhull garden in June.

In May

lacy tree tops dance
partnered by amorous winds
and flying blossom.

In June

tree branches roll, like
wave tops in stormy weather.
Flowers gaily prance.

A Special Visitor

Our bare garden is particularly good for viewing all the birds that visit the neighbourhood. The mature garden next door with lots of hanging feeders attracts blackbirds, tits, sparrows and I have counted six goldfinches at one time. They all scatter when the magpie flies in.

The last couple of days has seen two new visitors. One was a magnificent mistlethrush. The other had us puzzled. It looked like a robin without a red breast but as it fluttered around the flowering palm over the fence at the end, we could see flashes of red. Then as it hopped around on the ground in our area, I thought the red part was under its tail.

I went on the RSPB site today and was delighted to discover that it is a black redstart, which is on the amber list of Birds of Conservation Concern. Apparently there are fewer than 100 breeding pairs left in the UK.

The photo is by Lhgergo at Wikimedia.

Walking Spurs the Muse

This is something I wrote early this year. I have to tell you that because if you know anything about the UK, you'll know it's not snowdrop time yet.

"I have been reading books about the writing life by Julia Cameron and Dorothea Brande. Both these authors are in tune with each other and have similarities. For instance, they both recommend early morning free writing. And they both recommend walking to get some inspiration. Ms Brande suggests trying to look at what you pass with the eyes of a stranger, and making up descriptions as you walk.

This works well with my current practice of trying to get out for a short brisk walk every day, and today I tried it out. Stupidly, I didn’t take a notebook and pen, but here are some snippets I can remember.

Tall, lean silver birch, feathery fronds bending earthwards.

Sentinel trees, standing to attention.

Fields bounded by straight-clipped, gnarled hedgerows, bare of green except where rampant ivy climbs.

Snowdrops clump on the river bank, their bright white contrasting sludgy earth and grey, running water.

Now they are written down, perhaps I’ll get to use them somehow."

Unfortunately, not yet. But perhaps I will now I've come across this again.

What to Do with Stale Doughnuts

(This mouthwatering pic is by Kronn at Wikimedia Commons.)

Last week hubby came home with a packet of mini jam doughnuts. He just saw them in the shop and fancied one. We are great believers in ‘a little of what you fancy does you good.’ And these were MINI doughnuts.

There were four in the packet. We had no family or friends visiting, so when we’d had our quota of one each, there were two left. And of course you know doughnuts have to be eaten fresh. They don’t last overnight.

I can’t bear to waste food and the next day I didn’t want to throw away those doughnuts. After research and improvisation, I came up with the following recipe. It made pudding for two days. On the first day we had it with warm stewed apple, and the second day I heated it in the microwave and poured hot custard over it. We loved it.

Preheat oven to 180º
Grease a tin or ovenproof dish
Cut the doughnuts into small pieces
Dot them with butter, bertolli spread or your choice of butter substitute
Arrange them in the greased dish
Sprinkle them with currants or raisins
Beat two eggs in a measuring jug
Make it up to half a pint with milk
Stir in a dessertspoon of sugar
Pour over the doughnuts
Bake for about 25 minutes until just firm and browned on top.
Enjoy.

Cabby Story - as Told to Me

Pic by David Iliff is of a black cab in London.


Scene: Taxi rank at the railway station. Elderly woman approaches the first taxi in line and speaks to the driver. She is followed by a man who stands and waits behind her.

Woman: Could you pick me up at a quarter to eight tomorrow morning.

Cabby: Where do you want to go?

Woman (haughtily): That’s my business.

Cabby: If that’s the case then, Madam. I can’t help you.

Woman (taken aback): What do you mean; you can't help me?

Cabby: Well the thing is, I have to be at Mesley (village 10 minutes drive away) by ten past eight to take a regular customer to work.

Woman: Oh. Right. Well I just need to get to the National Express stop.

Cabby: Would that be the one opposite the newsagents in Station Road?

Woman: That’s right.

Cabby: In that case, I can take you. Where do want picking up?

Woman: Mayflower House.

Cabby: And where’s that, then?

Woman: You mean you’re a taxi driver and you don’t know. It’s been there for over 400 years.

Cabby (who’s been driving the area for just 12 years): Sorry, I don’t think I have picked up from a Mayflower House.

Woman: It’s next to the MOT garage.

Cabby: Which one? Exmarsh? (There are about 4 MOT garages in this small town.)

Woman: (exasperated) No. No. Queen Street. By the old post office.

Cabby: Ah. I know that old post office. (It was the second one in the town to close.)

Woman: That’s Mayflower House.

Cabby: Well I never.

Woman: You will be there at quarter to eight?

Cabby: Yes I’ll pick you up there at 7.45 tomorrow morning.

Woman walks off.

Cabby (to male passenger standing and patiently waiting): Sorry about that sir. It’s quite painful sometimes trying to get the information I need. If she’d said the old post office in Queen Street, I’d have known right away. Now, where did you want to go sir?

Adgitize Affiliates

Today I learnt how to earn by becoming an adgitize affiliate. That just means putting an ad on my side bar that takes you to the adgitize sign up page. Every time someone signs up when they have clicked my ad, I will earn, and then I'll earn a bit more commission from them each month.

You could do it too. All you have to do is click my add, sign up and put the ad on your sidebar. What a doddle.

I was already enamoured of Adgitize which has me earning through clicks as I do my EC dropping. I wish I'd taken a bit more time to check out the rest of the Adgitize opportunities a bit sooner.